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I like the look of the exposed polepieces, nice!
How do you find it compared to the original pickups?
I'm about to modify mine when I have some time, but I'm keeping the pickups and changing the electronics: I'm not a huge fan of 2-band EQ, so I'm installing a passive tone and an adjustable mids module (100-1000Hz)...
The Geezers have a weight to the tone that the stock EMG’s couldn’t duplicate. It’s primarily in the mids, but if you roll the tone back on the soloed P, it just sounds so good. So fat and warm. It retains detail and fills my ears with goodness. I love it.
The GZR J Pickup is dead silent. The stock EMG J had some noise when it was solo with the tone up. It can’t quite cop a Jaco tone. I feel like I just can’t roll the tone back enough.
I wasn’t a fan of the 2-Band BTS EQ either. It sounded fine, I am just really accustomed to a 3 Band setup. I don’t play live gigs anymore, so onboard eq isn’t really a requirement. Passive suits me just fine.
I tried 3 different P's in this Model T and was thinking about selling it. Then I tried the Geezer P and it sounded amazing. It proved to me that some pickups work better in certain Basses better than others and vice versa. The J is just to fill the hole and isn't even wired up. I disconnect all the J's in my P/J Basses. I have no use for it whatsoever.
Honestly, I feel like I’m moving more and more in that direction as well. I won’t necessarily disconnect my J, but I am using it less and less. The P sounds so good by itself.
My model t with geezer's and black hardware.
The Geezer P just didn't quite work in my other yellow Model T. It has a Mojotone Knockout P wound to a scorching HOT 13.2 K ohm, w/ adjustable polepieces, Ceramic bar magnets for more punch, grind, and output. Wound to a scorching HOT 13.2 K ohm. The Knockout is like in between the Geezer P and the Schecter MonsterTone P with the Brass Backing plates that I have in my Black Model T (Thanks to Mammoth_Bass). The MonsterTones also use Ceramic Bar Magnets but theMagnets are a bit larger than the Knockout P.
My 3 Tone Burst has the Active Seymour Duncan APB-1 also w/ Ceramic Magnets.
I've been an Active EMG guy for 30 years and the original EMG's were all w/ Ceramic Magnets. In recent years I've become more open minded to experiment with Passive's with Alnico Magnets. The only 2 I've really liked are the EMG Geezer and the Fender Custom Shop 59 that come in the Mike Dirnt P Basses. I'm starting to believe that Passive pickups are more sensitive to the tonality of the Bass they are installed in, more so than Active pickups. I can put an active EMG or Seymour Duncan P in a Bass and know I'll get a good usable tone. I think that maybe why some people call active pickups Sterile. Maybe I'm crazy but, I'll keep swapping pickups around till I find what I like. I've tried onboard EQ/Preamps and don't care for them. I like being able to swap to any of my Basses, adjust the single Tone control for the song and go. I believe Less = More.
Just curious, is the Schecter Michael Anthony pickup anything like the EMG Geezer Butler pickup?
Through my ripping high gain rig they have very similar tonal qualities, especially with the mid grind. The MA MonsterTone seems to have slightly more Lows(Sub freq) than the EMG Geezer. At least that's what I'm hearing as I just A-B'ed them in the 2 different Model T's they are currently installed in w/ only P's wired up.
EMG Geezer P, Rosewood 9 lb 6 oz- Vs- MA MonsterTone P, Maple 9lb 10oz
I would agree with @EdBo. The Monstertone is in the same ballpark, but to me is a bit more rich in the mids and has a little more "muscle"
Thanks for the A - B comparison! I can't wait to have another set of MA in my bass
I'm down to 2 sets of MonsterTone's now. I gave my Son one of my Michael Anthony Basses for his birthday last month. I had to share in my good fortune. Now that he's had some time with it he understands the enthusiasm I have about the Bass and the pickups. He did have me put the stock pickguard back on it and a set of Hi-Beams. He didn't care for the Red Pearl Pickguard and the Red Devils. I also put the pickup selector switch back in it and wired it stock for him to experiment with.
So, I wanted have a balance pot sice day 1 on my CV-5. Being 100% ignorant about the diferent tapers involved for these center detent twin pots I first tried with a regular B250K pot I had lying around (overlapping) and it had a huge dip in volume in the center position. 5min of internet research later I understood the right way to do it was using an MN250K pot (non overlapping), which I ordered, then received and installed on tuesday. Now, I like this functionally better than the 3-pos switch, but it's eating a little treble. Didn't think it'd produce such an audible load. Not losing sleep about it (these pickups' tone is bright by nature, I'm almost always rolling back the tone a little anyway) but still will unground it (according to this it'll also make it more gradual, an improvement as it's too abrupt now). Didn't have a knob that matched the ones the bass came with, but had these black plastic ones lying around which not only don't ruin the bass' looks (they match the plastic parts -pickups, nut-) but I even happen to really lke them
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So, I wanted have a balance pot sice day 1 on my CV-5. Being 100% ignorant about the diferent tapers involved for these center detent twin pots I first tried with a normal B250K pot I had lying around (overlapping) and it had a huge dip in volume in the center position. 5min of internet research later I understood the right way to do it was using an MN250K pot (non overlapping), which I ordered, then received and installed on tuesday. Now, I like this functionally better than the 3-pos switch, but it's eating a little treble. Didn't think it'd produce such an audible load. Not losing sleep about it (these pickups' tone is bright by nature, I'm almost always rolling back the tone a little anyway) but still will unground it (according to this it'll also make it more gradual, an improvement as it's too abrupt now). Didn't have a knob that matched the ones the bass came with, but had these black plastic ones lying around which not only don't ruin the bass' looks (they match the plastic parts -pickups, nut-) but I even happen to really lke them
If it wasn't such a pain I'd send you another matching knob but, I think the Black knobs look better, giving the control plate some contrast. And like you said it matches all the other black parts. I went to Schecters website and compared the stock photo's with yours and I like it better with the black knobs.
Some people like a balance control, some people like having a switch and some like using 2 Volume controls.
I have no use for a Bridge pickup at all, whatsoever, for the style of music and the Tones I love. Any of my Basses that have Bridge pickups have the bridge pickup un-wired. I use the "less is more" philosophy. Hell, I don't even like Dual Coil Humbuckers. To me they muddy my tone. A Split coil P is wired Humbucking but, it doesn't have 2 coils/poles per string. I love those split coil P pickups, Leo Fender was a genius, sneaking those in his Basses in 57, IMO. They sound like a sigle coil but, without the hum and noise.
Sorry about the rant, I'm a bit slap-happy.
**Peace**
Much appreciated. I'm in fact going to the USA on vacation in July, but will mostly be around the west coast, except for a few days in NY and DC (closest I'll be to OH). Still it'd be too much. I mean, I'm all for having an excuse to hang with a fellow TBer in the other side of the pond, just don't have a spare day to drive those 450 miles and back (with the wife and 2 kids).
I've already ordered a cheap "alternative" set of knobs just in case.
I've got a Stiletto Extreme-4 that I need to get set up, and I'm going to put new strings on it in the process. So far I've just been running the strings that came with it. I'm thinking about trying flatwounds just to try out a different sound (I'm still learning and playing at home so it's not like I need to worry about fitting in a band's sound or anything like that). Does anyone have experience with running flatwounds on one of these or have any thoughts about how this might sound?
Boy got my Michael Anthony sig bass yesterday and this is what was the outcome when I took out of box. All that it was wrapped in was a trash bag and a little bubble wrap. No inner box. So so sad. Working to get money back and going to buy directly from schecter.
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